Charleston Loan Exhibition

57 Double chest Charleston, SC, ca. 1770 Mahogany and mahogany veneer with cypress and mahogany secondary woods H. 77¾ x W. 41 ‹/* x D. 21 ‡/* inches Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC, collection fund purchase, 2003.001.003 Conservation supported by Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Dana In Charleston, the double chest was favored over the high chest of drawers—in fact, not a single Charleston- made example of the latter has been documented. Both imported to and produced in the city, the double chest was ubiquitous throughout the Carolina Lowcountry in the eighteenth century. Double chests were so common, in fact, that several examples have been recorded in a single household. Charleston double chests tend to be directly inspired by English-made examples, both in decoration and construc- tion. With few exceptions, locally made double chests are characterized by features associated with London-based urban shop practices such as complex case joinery, half to full dustboards and center drawer muntins—extra features not commonly found in colonial American furniture because of the extra time and cost but stan- dard in eighteenth-century Charleston work. As a result, scholars and collectors are reliant on indigenous secondary woods such as cypress to identify Charleston-made double chests from English examples. Today this form has come to characterize the high standards of construction and quality of workmanship for which Charleston’s colonial furniture is known. This outstanding example is one of only two document- ed Charleston double chests with quarter columns in the base and applied fretwork on the upper chamfers. With the exception of their brasses, the materials, construction details, proportions and decorations on both double chests (the other is in the collection of The Charleston Museum) are identical, reflecting the astonishing level of standard- ization that a Charleston cabinetmaking shop could attain despite the hands of multiple journeymen and apprentices at work on a given piece of furniture. BSC